


Mad Scientist Needed In Aisle Two

by FleetSparrow



Series: Drawlloween 2020 [5]
Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:42:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27097525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FleetSparrow/pseuds/FleetSparrow
Summary: Professor Crane spots a scared young women in the Halloween aisle.This does not bode well for her.
Relationships: Jonathan Crane & Original Female Character(s)
Series: Drawlloween 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1954945
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	Mad Scientist Needed In Aisle Two

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so far behind with these, but I swear I'm catching up.

Jonathan Crane was shopping for groceries. This was not by choice, you see, but out of necessity. When he’d finally been released from Arkham, the powers that be had set him up a small apartment, but hadn’t left any food. What little money they’d given him was going to have to last him until his next hei--his next…job.

His next professional, non-criminal job.

For now, however, he was grocery shopping.

The Halloween decor was, as usual, extremely tacky and poorly made. Perhaps, had he not been so thoroughly “cured” as the doctors had said, he might have found them charming. But he did not.

That was definitely because he was cured and not because he had a secret stash of better quality decorations tucked away in an old safe house. Definitely.

A gaggle of college girls were going through the Halloween section, trying to scare each other with each light-up skeleton and foam headstone.

His hands twitched.

One of the girls looked like she was about to have a nervous breakdown between all the hanging ghouls and ghosts of the aisle. His eyes fell onto her and a tiny spark ignited in the back of his brain. Like a little voice, it called to him.

_Talk to her._

_Take her._

_Frighten her._

The rest of her friends moved on, temporarily distracted by a talking skeletal DJ figure, and Crane moved in.

“My dear child, you’re trembling,” he said, shifting into his neutral professorial accent. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

The girl jumped and whirled around. Seeing it was just him, and not one of her friends trying to scare her again, she relaxed slightly.

“Halloween always scares me,” she said. “I’m afraid I’m a bit chicken.”

“Everyone’s afraid of something, my dear.”

She forced a weak smile on her face. “Thanks.”

Like a magician, his card was out and in her hand, his long fingers gently curled around hers.

“If you ever wish to talk, I specialize in phobias. Perhaps I can be of assistance.”

She blinked and Crane stepped away, bowing slightly before returning to his groceries.

“Thank you,” she called out after him.

He walked on down the next aisle, his mouth twisting into a smile.

She would make a lovely study for him.

He whistled as he made his way through the store, an old, haunting song he’d first heard in his childhood.

Oh yes. She would make a lovely study.


End file.
